Location Description:

St. Roy Chef's Pub is what owner/chef Justin Monson calls the upgraded bar at his 8-year-old restaurant Vine. You discover quickly that the menu for Vine is the menu for St. Roy. The only difference: While you dine at Vine, you eat at St. Roy. For the moment, everyone chooses the St. Roy side. You also should. It's a sort-of backstage pass to witness Vine's beating heart, a bar with a view of the deep fryers gurgling and sauté pans blazing. It's true that you're often shoulder-to-shoulder with the next customer in this claustrophobic space, saddling up at communal butcher-block tables, trying to avoid being distracted by whatever's on TV--but there's always something happening, something to look at, something to smell. You see people greeting one another with hugs and hi-how-are-yas. You spy a yet-undiscovered dish delivered to an adjacent table. You watch the bartenders pour microbrew from a newly installed 10-tap system or wine from a contraption that has a series of hoses hooked up to dozens of bottles, the liquid surging in the tubes. And when you are ready to order, you anticipate greatness as you scan the blackboards for specials.